Claiming higher-rate relief on pension payments and Gift Aid
When you pay into a personal pension or give to charity with Gift Aid, only basic-rate (20%) relief is added automatically. If you pay tax at 40% or 45%, you can claim the rest through your tax return. Many people never do.
Which pension payments count?
- Relief at source pensions: personal pensions, SIPPs, stakeholder pensions, and some workplace schemes such as NEST. You pay £80 and the provider claims £20 from HMRC. These are the ones to put on your return.
- Net pay workplace pensions, taken from your salary before tax: you already got full relief. Leave them off.
- Salary sacrifice: nothing to claim, because your taxable pay was already reduced.
Look at your payslip. If the pension comes off before tax is worked out, it's net pay. If you pay a personal pension from your bank account, it's relief at source.
Which boxes?
| Box (main return, page TR 4) | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Box 1 | Payments to relief-at-source pensions, gross. That's what you paid plus the 20% the provider added (paid divided by 0.8). |
| Box 5 | Gift Aid payments made in the year to 5 April 2026, what you actually gave. HMRC grosses it up itself. |
The two boxes work differently: the pension box wants the gross figure, but the Gift Aid box wants what you actually paid. Mixing them up is one of the most common mistakes.
How the relief works
HMRC raises your basic-rate band (and the higher-rate limit) by the gross amount. So that much more of your income is taxed at 20% instead of 40%.
Example: higher-rate taxpayer
Tom earns £60,000, pays £4,000 into a SIPP (£5,000 gross) and gives £800 with Gift Aid (£1,000 gross).
| Box 1 (pension, gross) | £5,000 |
| Box 5 (Gift Aid, as paid) | £800 |
| Basic-rate band raised by £5,000 + £1,000 | £37,700 to £43,700 |
| Extra relief (£6,000 x 20%) | £1,200 |
Tom gets £1,200 back through the return, on top of the basic-rate relief the pension provider and the charity already claimed.
The £100,000 trap
Above £100,000 of "adjusted net income", you lose £1 of Personal Allowance for every £2 of income. Gross pension payments and Gift Aid reduce adjusted net income, so they can win the allowance back. That gives an effective relief of 60% on income between £100,000 and £125,140.
Example: income £110,000 and you pay £8,000 into a personal pension (£10,000 gross). Adjusted net income drops to £100,000 and the full £12,570 allowance comes back. You get £2,000 from the wider band plus £2,000 from the restored allowance: £4,000 back on an £8,000 payment.
The same goes for the High Income Child Benefit Charge, which starts at £60,000 of adjusted net income.
Scottish taxpayers
Providers still add 20%. Scottish intermediate-rate (21%) taxpayers can claim an extra 1%, higher-rate (42%) 22%, advanced-rate (45%) 25%, and top-rate (48%) 28%. Starter-rate (19%) taxpayers still keep the full 20%.
Missed it in earlier years?
You can usually claim higher-rate relief for up to four previous tax years by contacting HMRC, or by amending a return within its time limit.
See what you'd get back. Tick "pension or Gift Aid" in the calculator and enter what you paid. It works out the gross figure for box 1, raises your bands and shows the extra relief.
Work out my figures - freeSources
- HMRC: Tax return SA100 2026 (page TR 4)
- GOV.UK: Pension tax relief
- HMRC Pensions Tax Manual: rate limits for Scottish taxpayers
General guidance, not tax or pensions advice. Pension annual allowance limits apply and aren't covered here.